Orthodox “observers” will meet Madonna in Russia

Last Saturday Kyiv held the long-awaited concert of Madonna, who is justly considered to be one of the key figures of modern pop-culture. She is over 50 and continues to go actively on tours, record new albums, and her shows remain provocative like in the time when provocation was part of mainstream and business, and bare buttocks could be surprising.

However, not everywhere the performances of Madonna, a Kabbalah follower, openly mocking at Catholicism, go big. According to mass media, she was made understand this specifically during her concert in one of the most pious countries of Europe, our neighboring Poland. There Madonna was accused of profanation of Christian symbols and propaganda of pornography, whereas Catholic organizations collec­ted over 40,000 signatures in protest of her performance in Warsaw.

The Kyiv concert went in a consi­derably calmer way: there were neither statements, nor protest actions. People were much more disturbed by the star’s 3.5-hour-late arrival and lack of hot-dogs in Olimpiisky stadium, where the concert was taking place.

The pop-queen’s performance in Russia is acquiring much more publicity. Though she mainly mocks at Catholicism, Russian Orthodox believers are going to meet the singer, apparently not knowing (or vice versa, understanding very well) what a luxurious entourage they will create for her performance.

According to the Russian bureau of Radio Liberty, Madonna has already announced her intention to speak during her Petersburg concert against the approved regional law against propaganda of homosexuality. The Orthodox community has reacted very quickly. On the eve of the concert in Petersburg leaflets putting Madonna in the same footing as fascists and the Pussy Riot band. On one of the leaflets there is a caricature of Madonna wearing a high hat with a rainbow swastika. The picture is followed with a warning: “Watch out! Homofascism!” On other leaflets there is an inscription “Fuck you, Madonna,” and lower, under the profiles of four girls in fishnet stockings (possibly members of Pussy Riot) there is one more inscription: “These perverts were enough for us.” Besides, some organizations are planning to hold a meeting on the day of the concert. The deputy of St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, one of the initiators of the abovementioned homophobic law Vitalii Milonov stated that he intends to bend every effort to “fix the facts of propagating homosexuality among teenagers and use all possible means against the carrier of the harmful Western reality.” According to Radio Liberty, a group of Orthodox observers will be sent to the concert, and they have agreed with law-enforcement officials upon the surveillance over Madonna.

I wonder what they will incriminate to her and how the law-enforcement bodies will react to a corruptive performance. Actually, there is nothing new about that. And it is hardly surprising for the country where a Pussy Riot is being prosecuted in court.

“It is not accidental that those stickers unite everything: swastika, Madonna’s image and Pussy Riot. I think that swastika is present there by no accident. People who spread these stickers profess openly fascist ideology,” head of Rus­sian LGBT network Igor Kochetkov says, “The phenomenon of Russian fascism is becoming more evident. This fascism is covered by such kind of ultra-orthodox patriotic ideas.”